Tag Archives: Edge Computing

Surveillance specialist Axis Communications’ CTO Johan Paulsson has outlined the Top Five Trends that the company feels will shape the New Year.

Paulsson stated: “As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said: ‘The only one constant in life is change’. There’s perhaps no better example of this than the technology industry, where innovation is so rapid that even the most fantastic of imagined futures seem like they could become a reality in the not too distant future.”

Axis Communications has put together five top technology trends that the Lund-based business feels will have a great impact on the security and surveillance industry now and in the years to come, helping to facilitate a smarter and, of course, safer world.

Johan Paulsson: CTO at Axis Communications

(1) A move towards the edge

“Two of the greatest trends that have propelled our industry forward in recent years,” observed Paulsson, “are cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT), both of which are delivering undeniable benefits to businesses and consumers alike. That said, they also come with implications, namely the rise in the amount of data being transferred, processed and stored. Going forward, we anticipate that ‘edge’ computing will become ever popular, alleviating this issue by performing data processing at the ‘edge’ of the network, closer to the source of the data. Doing so significantly reduces the bandwidth needed between sensors, devices and the Data Centre.”

(2) Cloud-to-Cloud

Paulsson observed: “Despite the move towards edge computing, the cloud will continue to play a significant role in IT infrastructures. As an increasing number of companies offer cloud-based services, the cloud ecosystem is increasingly becoming the preferred point of integration, rather than the traditional on-premise system. One benefit of integration between clouds is the significant potential reduction of in-house IT services required, in turn creating great cost benefits.”

(3) Deep and machine learning

According to Paulsson: “We’ve now reached a stage where the full benefits of deep learning architectures and machine learning can begin to be realised. The explosion of data available to analyse is helping businesses become increasingly intelligent. As applications develop, there are significant opportunities for predictive analytics which could facilitate incident prevention: from terrorist incidents to slip and fall accidents; from traffic issues to shoplifting and even the tragedy of rail suicides.”

(4) Cyber security

“Once again,” outlined Paulsson, “cyber security must appear on the list of trends for the next 12 months and beyond. The constant enhancement of cyber security will be a never-ending task. This is because well-resourced cyber criminals will never stop looking to exploit vulnerabilities in any new technology. As the number of connected devices grows, so too do the potential flaws that, if left unaddressed, could provide the opportunity for networks to be breached.”

Embellishing this theme, Paulsson said: “Legislation is being created to address these concerns. In the European Union, the forthcoming General Data Protection Regulation – the deadline for compliance for this being 25 May – will unify the protection of data for individuals within the EU, wherever that data is held or used.”

(5) Platforms to realise the full benefits of the IoT

In conclusion, Paulsson informed Risk UK: “The IoT has reached a point where it’s crucial to use scalable architecture to successfully collect and analyse data and manage the network of connected devices. Such an IoT platform allows equipment from different node vendors to co-exist and easily exchange information to form smart systems using existing network infrastructure. There are numerous companies, both well-established providers of technology and new market entrants, that are enabling platforms to support IoT devices. The next 12 months will see further maturation of this process.”